Demountable partition assemblies have become of primary importance in large building projects, wherein hollow walls of less than permanent construction are required which are easily assembled and later disassembled. Disassembly is necessary if wall locations are to be altered, such as in the redesign of office layouts. Such assembly and disassembly generally requires, for practicality, a minimum of relatively uncomplicated components. The hollow wall thus ideally constructed is generally characterized by partition members, primarily made from gypsum wallboard or panels, which are positioned adjacent to each other in two parallel spaced-apart opposing rows defining the sides of the wall. The spaced-apart opposing relationship of the sides is accomplished by studs of metal or wood to form the interior of the wall or divider wherein plumbing and electrical conduits are positioned. For maximum esthetic appeal, the studs do not project outwardly from between the panels, but engage kerfs in the panels' edges.
In my copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 77,997, filed Oct. 5, 1970, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,657, there is described a demountable partition formed by two opposed rows of panels, and studs, wherein each row is independently mounted from, but yet laterally supported by, the opposite row. Individually accessible panels are provided through the use of studs having a cross-sectional shape generally in the form of a C, which permits each stud to interengage with only one panel. A pair of such studs positioned back-to-back permits an individual panel and its stud to be demounted without distrubing the remainder of the wall or partition.
That partition assembly has provided great flexibility and esthetic design through the use of a minimum number of parts and studs. However, because adjacent C studs usually are mounted independently of each other, it is possible to inwardly displace one of the adjacent panels so mounted with respect to the other, and not have it "bounce" back to be coplanar with the adjacent panel, creating what is known as "lipping". It is thus desirable to provide a partition assembly which retains the individual accessibility of panels while at the same time maintains a fixed relationship betwen adjacent panels in a row.
Building constructions have been provided in the past which provide two support members which are to mate together, one being attached to one of a pair of adjacent wall units and the other to the other in the pair of wall units. The mating has been accomplished by tongues in one of the support members which project into holes or grooves in the mating support member. An example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,010,848. The difficulty with such constructions has been that the tongues must line up exactly with the openings in the mating member, a feat which is difficult to do when the partition panels are preassembled, as is usually the case, to the support member and both are then assembled to the already standing matable support member. That is, the to-be-erected panel prevents the worker from seeing the location of the mating openings. Still another disadvantage is the fact that errors in dimensions and location of the openings in the one support member during manufacturing cannot be tolerated, or alternatively, so much leeway must be built in to avoid dimensional errors that the entire assembly has a sloppy, loose fit.